Church hosting education fair on Saturday

January 24, 2013

To help families make decisions on the education of their children, Pine Street United Methodist Church, 441 Pine St., will hold an education fair and expo from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

"The general idea of the expo was to bring together day cares, preschools, public and private schools," said Sarah Odell, the church's Mothers of Preschoolers coordinator. "... They're all in one area so local parents could come in and see what their options were for their child. And also what services are out there that they don't even know about."

Odell said MOPS, which is hosting the event, wanted to show all options for parents. She said there are 21 vendors currently signed up to attend.

In addition to schools, there also will be companies that specialize in children products.

Odell said she came up with the idea to hold the event when thinking of all of the educational options there are in the area.

"I was thinking about that in this area right now we have a number of families, including a number of new families, that are coming into the area and just may not be aware of what's out there," she said.

Odell added that she was speaking about school with an individual who is raising their grandchild, and realized that similar situations are more common in today's society and wanted to help them.

"I'm looking to raise awareness for the community just that there are options out there. There are a number of good preschools, private schools (and) public school districts in the area," she said.

The event also is an opportunity for the schools and agencies to promote themselves in a fairly inexpensive way, Odell said.

She concluded by saying that the group just wants to help the community as much as possible.

"(Those who come) will have the opportunity to walk around and talk to the different vendors," Odell said.